Last week, Dr. Laura Calderón de la Barca, a health promotion expert from Mexico, travelled to PEI to participate in training using the Circle of Health.

The 2-day training, Finding Common Ground to Improve Health and Social Inequities, helped participants to enhance their facilitation skills to work across sectors with diverse and marginalized populations, using the PEI-made Circle of Health as a framework for conversation.

Calderón de la Barca plans to facilitate in Mexico with the Spanish version of the Circle of Health, and learned a great deal from the facilitators and other participants engaged in the training. She affirmed the benefits of the Circle of Health, and stresses that bringing clarity is one of the key features of the tool. Her future plans include exploring health promotion – emotional and mental promotion in particular – and using the Circle of Health during conversations with communities that have needs that are not being met. She said, “I see that this tool could help me support them in empowering themselves through better understanding the process of generating their own health for their own community.”

Patsy Beattie-Huggan, President of The Quaich Inc. and one of the creators of the Circle of Health, is pleased that Calderón de la Barca shared her international experiences, and she looks forward to co-facilitating with her in Mexico in the future.

“We were really pleased to have Laura participate in the facilitator training, as well as a registrant from Hamburg, Germany.” says Beattie-Huggan. “We’re excited about working with the international participants and opening more doors for collaboration with Spanish and German speaking organizations. We think it shows recognition of the expertise on PEI and our ability to share it with the rest of the world.”